The Settlers 7 Hands-on

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Dominate your enemies and raise a kingdom.

By Jeff Haynes

The Settlers 7 is the latest in the long-running strategy franchise from Blue Byte Software. The series made its name on the basics of 4X-style strategy, but more recent installments in the series strayed from the original approach of developing an economy before building an army or expanding your settlements. At a recent Ubisoft press event, Benedikt Grindel, the senior producer, stated that the developers wanted to "return The Settlers 7 to the classic economy that fans knew well and make them much deeper, while keeping the gameplay more accessible for newer players. "

To accomplish this, Blue Byte pulled in industry veteran Bruce Shelley, who helped Ensemble Studios build the Age of Empires franchise, to consult on the strategy. Shelley mentioned that he "wanted to work on something interesting and something he liked." After receiving the Settlers: Rise of an Empire, he felt he could help Blue Byte expand its reach to a larger audience. "The game was essentially done when I got there, and I think it's a really well done design. It's mostly been a question of tweaking, discussing and trying new things to make the game more accessible and easier to get into," Shelley said.

Welcome to your land -- rule it wisely.

The campaign mode is set in the late Middle Ages in a fake European kingdom named Tandria. Its ruler has been deposed and there's repeated civil unrest over the land, its people and its resources. You play a young princess named Zoe from a rival kingdom. Your father, King Konradin, decides that Tandria is ripe for your conquering, and sends you to take over the country. That isn't his only motive, as you'll discover over the course of the twelve missions in the single player mode. Single player mode will also teach you how to build your economy and accomplish military and scientific endeavors. Grindel said the single player campaign was specifically designed to prepare you for multiplayer. Shelley agreed, saying, "I think by the time you finish the sixth map, you've been exposed to all the basic things in the game. You know how to build everything; you know how to trade; you know how to use technology; you know how to use the military. At that point, you're prepared to play a skirmish game against the AI or you're prepared to play multiplayer against your friends."

I was shown the tutorial level set in the land of Mohnfelden, where Zoe's advisors helped her set up an economy. The economy revolves around "stones and trees," because they are the raw materials that help you make tools, construct buildings, and put your plans in motion. However, while forests are a renewable resource, stone isn't, and once a quarry has been completely mined out, it's gone forever. According to Shelley, there are only a few ways to combat this problem. For example, you can provide higher quality food for your workers, which will boost their production three to four times that of a starving settler. If this doesn't work, then you'll have to rely on trade and supply lines to replenish your stockpiles.

Getting a bird's eye viewcan always help you plan your next move.

In The Settlers 7, you spend a significant amount of time building supply lines and maximizing your space to produce goods for your economy. Each structure you build can have up to three possible production sites surrounding it. For example, a house can produce grain in one site, beer next to that, and pigs at the third site. The location needs to be connected to a road to produce its goods and contribute to your kingdom, and you'll need a storehouse nearby to collect these items; the farther a settler drags these items through the streets, the slower your production gets. Now, once you've built a solid economy, you can send merchants to trade posts to establish trade routes around the world. The world is based on our world map, but it's sectioned up into various districts with different purchasable items. By establishing trade routes with these locations, you can supplement your resources with the goods your nation can't produce.

Then again, if you happen to find a neighboring country that has what you want or need, you can always invade and conquer them. Combat within The Settlers 7 isn't about mobilizing large armies with complex tactics. Instead, Benedikt mentioned that there are only four unit types in the game: pikemen, musketeers, cavaliers and cannons. These units will be led by generals, each of whom has their own individual special abilities to boost ranged forces or melee attacks. I noticed that combat seems to function off common sense. For instance, if you have 5 cavaliers and your enemy has 2, you'll probably win. But if you have 5 cavaliers going against 5 cannons, the enemy will probably win because they have cannons and are likely to be in defensible fortifications.